Research On Religion

#1 Matthew Moore on Buddhism, Meditating Machines, and the Robopocalypse.

tonygill — Sun, 16 Sep 2018 08:00:42 +0000

It is said that Jesus hits like the atom bomb. If so, then Buddha, or at least this episode on Buddhism and near-future technology, might be the daisy cutter of philosophy. Whereas most of the episodes on Research on Religion have focused on Christianity, the dominant faith tradition in the English-speaking world and the topic most in my wheelhouse, I tried to venture outside of the box on a regular basis to learn about other religions. Relative to Christianity, there isn’t as much social scientific work outside the Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; the work that does exist tends to be more normative and philosophical in its tenor. Nonetheless, I made an effort to pick up these different traditions and stumbled across the work of political theorist Matthew Moore, a professor at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo. Our first interview on Buddhism and political theory was interesting and at the end of our discussion I asked what he was working on. Prof. Moore responded that he was thinking about whether robots (and artificial intelligence) could meditate. That statement took my breath away since it was something that I never thought about and it just sounded weird. Not being a stranger to “weird,” I made a mental note to return to this topic for the Halloween series and after about a year I exchanged some emails with Matt and he sent me some working papers. The topic proved to be more interesting and intellectually deep than I had thought and decided to make it one of our regularly featured episodes. The conversation that resulted was amazing, at least for me. After hanging up the phone, I remember sitting back in my chair and going “Whoa!” (My recent interview with John Traphagan had a similar vibe to it.) There is a lot to think about with respect to the human condition in this episode, and filtered through a Buddhist lens is just the flavoring that I had sought after throughout this podcast. The blending of science/technology and religion is also one of the other themes running through this discussion. And who knew everything that I wanted to do with this podcast would come wrapped in a warning about the Robopocalypse to come? As I have come to learn, you often find the most interesting things you are looking for when you least expect them and in the places you never would think to look. The trick is to always be observant. It has been a good ride. Carry on, folks.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Stephen Barr on Religion, Quantum Physics, and the God Particle.

John Traphagan on Cargo Cults and SETI.

#2 Daniel Stiles on Cowboy Churches

tonygill — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 08:00:18 +0000

One of the greatest joys of doing this podcast for the past eight years has been to meet some pretty incredible people who are just “ordinary” citizens going about their daily life. My goal from the beginning of this project was to highlight “practitioners” who “learn by doing” and to bring forth the knowledge they possess. Such practitioners often have more valuable insights into human behavior than the scholars who study these folks. Without doubt, my favorite category of interviews have been these episodes, and I am proud to have made an effort to highlight the voices of these folks. My most notable one came early on with Daniel Stiles. For those who know me, you will know that I like “cowboy culture” and The West. I cannot remember how I exactly stumbled across Dan Stiles. I had attended a couple cowboy church services in our area and probably decided to do a web search. We were taking a family vacation out to Wyoming and Montana some 8 years ago and Dan Stiles was the announcer for Cody Night Rodeo, a nightly rodeo that is held in Cody, Wyoming (hence the name). I found his insights into how difficult it is to minister to itinerant young men (and women), the temptations and difficulties they face, and ways to reach out to them to be utterly fascinating. Scholarly books will tell you about big trends in religious movements, but here is a guy who has to figure out how to “do religion” on a day-to-day basis. When we were out in Cody, and attending the rodeo (it was surprisingly cold that day), I took my son up to the rodeo announcing booth but the door was closed and I didn’t want to interrupt him. Dan said later that I should have knocked, but it was a lost opportunity. Since that time Dan has moved down to Oklahoma and takes care of good folks at a senior living center. This guy has a heart of a saint and is everything good about humanity. In times when the news only emphasizes the bad, this is the guy you turn to for the Good News.

As for the “honorable mentions” in this category, they are numerous and are filled with people who do incredible things on a daily basis, yet never get recognized. I chose just a few standouts to highlight, but click the “practitioners” link for a full menu of these awesome discussions.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Frank Selden on the Military, Suicide, and Faith.

Jeff Henig on Prison Ministry.

Robert Kinnune on Military Chaplains.

Jeff Rose on Street Preaching.

Michael Boone’s Spiritual 40 Day Road Trip.

Allison Pond on Being a Mormon Missionary.

Bill Clark on an Academic’s Spiritual Journey.

Dirk Dalhausser and Kerry Jones on Building Churches.

Martin Barret on Sozo Friends and For-Profit Charities.

Richard Hammar on Churches, Taxes, Donations, and Liabilities.

Tim Kelleher on the Nicene Creed and Hollywood.

#3 Ron Hassner on Sacred Spaces and Holy Conflict

tonygill — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 08:00:28 +0000

Academia is a world that can be filled with intense jealousies and envy, wherein one professor is always concerned why the work of another professor is more cited than their own. We all suffer from that sin, whether we admit it or not. However, Dr. Ron Hassner (UC-Berkeley) is probably the one scholar in my field of religion and politics whose work I have the highest respect for and think his writing should be getting as much attention as possible. We featured Prof. Hassner on our show three times (which is not enough) and our fist meeting happened when he was invited up (albeit not by me) to the University of Washington to give a talk on his ongoing research about religion in the military. I took the opportunity to interview him in-person, which increased the audio quality of the podcast. Not only was I amazed with Ron’s precise scholarship, but he is one of the most relaxed guests I’ve had on the show and he understands how to make things “visual” for the audience as well as keeping a nice sense of humor even when the topic can be dark. (Bradley Wright and Jeremy Lott were the two other guests who excelled at this.) After this interview, I told Ron that he was well within the framework of the “economics of religion” school, to which he denied, but his conceptualization and analysis of “sacred goods” (and his brilliant use of Solomon’s judgement to illustrate this) puts him squarely within our “thick rationality camp.” He probably will still deny this, but that is one area where he is wrong (he went to Stanford, after all, a hotbed of rational institutionalism!). It was also from our chance meeting and these interviews that we were able to get one of his graduate students, Jason Klocek, connected with Institute for Religion, Economics, and Society down at Chapman University (the home of Iannaccone, Rubin, Bader, and Molle). My only complaint with respect to Prof. Hassner is that he hasn’t invited me down to Cal to give a talk (in my effort to present at every Pac-12 university before I retire).* C’mon, Ron!

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Ron Hassner on Religion in the Military.

Ron Hassner on Religion on the Battlefield.

Richard Nielsen on Deadly Clerics.

Sean Everton on Religion and Dark Networks.

Matthew Isaacs on Religion and Ethnic Rebellion.

Jason Klocek on Religious Conflict and Repression.

*Tony Gill, never averse to self-promotion, is available for various academic talks and has over a dozen possible topics he could present on. Fell free to contact him.

#4 Emily Fisher Gray on Luther’s 95 Theses

tonygill — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 08:00:30 +0000

During 2017, we undertook a series of episodes dedicated to Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. A number of superb interviews came from that series, including the Catholic response to Protestantism with James Felak. However, my favorite episode of this bunch was with Dr. Emily Fisher Gray of Norwich University, who (like Colleen Haight last week) had incredible enthusiasm for the topic. I found this to be a very accessible introduction to the thinking of Luther and his life and times. While lots of organizations and institutes were running to get the “big names” to speak on the topic of Luther and the Reformation, here we had somebody from a smaller university that might not otherwise get to showcase their ideas. Indeed, I found Prof. Gray to be much more open and insightful about Luther than most of the marquee scholars who often play their analysis “close to the vest” to avoid alienating anybody. I also have to admit that I debated whether or not to pub Sarah Bond’s interview on funeral services in late antiquity into this position. Bond’s interview also represented a fantastic scholar who has yet had the opportunity to find a broader audience for her ideas. Choosing between these was difficult, and the desire to highlight our Protestant Reformation series was the tipping point, but I urge you to listen to them both and consider them a tie.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Protestant Reformation Series.

Sarah Bond on Church and Funerals in Late Antiquity.

Louis Markos on the Poetry of Heaven and Hell.

David Deavel on De Sales, Newman, Chesterton, and Hitchcock.

Jason Jewell on Why Christians Should Read the Great Books.

Russell Kleckley on Religion, Science, and Johannes Kepler.

Curtis Freeman on Undomesticated Dissent.

#5 Colleen Haight on the Oracle of Delphi

tonygill — Sun, 19 Aug 2018 08:00:50 +0000

As noted in my farewell monologue, the characteristics that I look for in an interview are topics that are a little off the beaten path and the enthusiasm of the scholar for his/her topic. Dr. Colleen Haight, a professor of economics at San Jose State University, is the perfect embodiment of both these characteristics. Not only has Colleen studied the economics of fair trade coffee, and the historical importance of Jewish peddlers on the American frontier, she also undertook a project (with previous RoR guests Larry Iannaccone and Jared Rubin) on the institutional significance of the Oracle of Delphi. This is certainly not a topic you would expect to see an economist studying, and yet there are numerous insights that we discuss that once you hear them, you say, “Oh, but of course!” This is a great episode for those interested in trivia as there are all these little historical tidbits dropped throughout the interview that make for fun discussion at cocktail parties. More importantly, though, is Prof. Haight’s passion for her topics. I was debating whether to feature this episode or her one on Jewish peddlers (see below), but the offbeat nature of ancient Greeks inhaling sulfur fumes was too good to pass up. I’ve used this podcast in my own classes and recommend it to folks as a great conversation-starter if you want to chat history or international relations with folks.

On an additional note in the “honorable mentions” category, we have two podcasts that included musical clips. (Our show actually featured several episodes with musical interludes.) These were simply fun to do even though editing was a bit more complex.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Colleen Haight on Jewish Peddlers in 19th Century America.

Sarah Bond on Funerals and the Church in Late Antiquity.

Peter Leeson on Witch Trials and Human Sacrifice.

Jared Rubin on Christian and Islamic Economic History.

Murat Iyigun on Monotheism, Conflict, Europe, the Ottomans and the Blues (with musical clips).

Lerone Martin on Preaching on Wax and Phonographic Religion (with musical clips!).

#6 Rod Stark on How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists

tonygill — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 08:00:23 +0000

Organized religion and religious believers often get painted with a bad reputation, and sometimes it is justly due, but most of the time it is not. Prof. Rod Stark, a co-founder of Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, explains the benefits of religion on a wide range of social behavior. Rod has long been my most favorite sociologist of religion and has had a profound impact on the way I write. While Prof. Stark can write research papers in academic jargon with the best of them, the publication of his book The Rise of Christianity jettisoned him into the world of writing for the general public (and perhaps surprisingly). That book was based on sociological theory and empirical research, but it was written in a rather accessible manner without dumbing anything down. Rod followed the success of this book with a string of monographs that sold (and still sell) very well, including For the Glory of God, One True God, God’s Battalions, and The Triumph of Christianity … to name just a few. I remember telling a college-educated neighbor that I study religion and he told me that I should read “this book” by a certain Rod Stark. Not only did I tell him that I had read that book, but I also informed him that I use it in class and have hung out with Rod on numerous occasions. The mere fact that a “lay reader” had this book on his bedside table told me that it is possible for a scholar to do serious research that resonates with the general public. For that reason, and many others (including my love of Rod’s irascible personality when it comes to scholarship he finds nonsensical), Rod has appeared on this show more times than any other guest — a record seven times. I could have chosen any of his Rise of Christianity podcasts to insert in this spot, or his explanation for why the Crusades occurred, but I went with his discussion of his book America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists as our discussion covered a number of themes that come up regularly on our show including religion and health, religion and social behavior, and whether religion is vanishing with all the young nones. I encourage everybody to visit all the other “Rodcasts” for some entertaining and educational material.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Rodcast Series.

Bradley Wright on Christian Stereotypes (a five-time guest).

Steve Pfaff on the World of 1517.

Philip Jenkins on Global Christianity.

Paul Froese on the Meaning of Life.

#7 Jim Papandrea on Christology, Superheroes, and Science Fiction Films

tonygill — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 08:00:58 +0000

Modern social media is a wondrous thing. Without it, this podcast would have never come into being, and it is unlikely that I would have been able to find half of my guests. Many of my ideas for shows were culled from posts I saw on Facebook, Twitter, or internet news and scholarly feeds I receive (not to mention emails from listeners suggesting potential guests). One such guest came to me via Facebook as I was linking to some old high school friends. Jim Papandrea was two years my senior in school but we knew each other fairly well through a variety of dramatic plays including “The Odd Couple” (where he played Felix Unger). After connecting with Jim, I realized that he was a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and had written stuff on early Christianity. I had to get him on the show! An old friend, Felix Unger, and early Christianity (which holds a particular fascination with me and is an era that I wanted to learn more about). After getting Jim on the show once, he became one of my favorite guests because of his enthusiasm for his topics and his ability to explain rather esoteric history and theology in lay terms.

Jim clocks in with five … count ’em, five … appearances on Research on Religion, each one better than the last. It was also fun to note that while Jim began life as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism, whereas I went the opposite direction thereby keeping an equilibrium balance in the world. While any of his interviews could have appeared in the Top Twelve list, I chose the last one we did back in 2017 because it was a rather “odd” topic that seemed a bit out of his wheelhouse (that wheelhouse being early patristic studies). It turns out, though, that Jim — a science fiction fan — was able to see linkages between his research in Christology and things such as Superman and Star Wars. For me, this is indicative of scholarly creativity that reveals many of the fascinating interconnections in the world that we often overlook. This was one of those interviews that when I stop the recording and hang up the phone I shout out “Wow, that was fun!” Indeed, during those occasional spells where I became weary of doing these interviews on a weekly basis, I would get an interview like this and it would just energize me to push forward with more gusto.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Robert Joustra on Zombies, Cylons, Charles Taylor, and the Apocalypse.

Chris Bader on the Paranormal.

John Sweeney on “Its a Wonderful Life.”

Michael Medved on Religion and Hollywood (one of our “big name” interviews).

Tara Moor on Christmas Traditions … and Krampus.

Other podcasts by Jim Papandrea.

#8 Larry Iannaccone on Sacrifice, Stigma, and the Economics of Religion

tonygill — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 08:00:55 +0000

I owe a great deal professionally to the work of Larry Iannaccone, a professor of economics at Chapman University as he played a pivotal role in my intellectual development, putting me on a research course that landed me where I am today. We recount some of our adventures in this podcast, including how I first found one of his many outstanding articles, as well as his surprise to find that somebody was citing his research. Prof. Iannaccone is one of the founding fathers of the new “economics of religion” movement that went from a small handful of scholars in the 1980s (including Rod Stark and Roger Finke) to being able to host a conference with several hundred attendees on a regular basis. His impact on the study of religion is enormous. Not surprisingly, many of the episodes in Research on Religion have an economic vibe (see below for some of the other honorable mentions), but I was in hot pursuit from 2010 to get Larry on the show. He is rather shy and too humble, but the power of his work meant that I would not rest until he was on. In this episode, we cover one of his most important papers on how religious groups solve their collective action problems, most notably through the use of bizarre rituals, stigmatizing clothing, and seemingly irrational sacrifices. In my humble opinion, his article “Sacrifice & Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and other Collectives” is a landmark publication in the study of collective action (and worthy of a Nobel Prize nomination if not an award). This work has had an enormous impact on studies ranging from prison gangs to terrorism. Earlier this year, we had plans to do a series of live interviews at an ASREC conference in Orange, CA, that would have included a plenary session with Larry, but something got in the way of that. One of my only regrets about this program was that I was never able to do that. If you are in any way interested in understanding what religious folks and institutions do, you need to read the vast catalogue of Larry Iannaccone.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Michael McBride on Religious Free-Riding and the Mormon Church.

Jared Rubin on Religion & Credit Risk in the Ottoman Empire.

Timur Kuran on Islamic Economics.

Carolyn Warner on Religion and Generosity.

Charles North on Religion, Economic Development, and the Rule of Law.

#9 Carmel Chiswick on the Economics of Being Jewish in America

tonygill — Sun, 22 Jul 2018 08:00:49 +0000

Prof. Carmel Chiswick (George Washington University) is a scholar’s scholar. Dr. Chiswick is an economist to be reckoned with when it comes to what we usually think about when we talk economics (e.g., labor policy), but she also has the intellectual breadth to be able to address topics outside of the narrow confines of academically-defined fields. Add to this that Carmel has an incredible ability to teach people through stories, and often overlooked skill in our academic profession. This podcast dealt with her book Judaism in Transition, which is replete with her own observations of growing up Jewish and raising a Jewish family in Illinois. The stories are personal, which paints a vivid picture for our listeners, but are also connected to broader themes. Scholars will often criticize others for the use of anecdotes, but such stories can be very helpful to illustrate causality and bring religion to life. It was during this interview that I had another “a ha!” moment when Carmel mentioned that not only were younger people not going to church as they chose to marry later, but the “empty nester” parents of these religious “nones” also were not going to church because they didn’t have grandchildren to tend to. All those ads with senior citizens riding cross country on motorcycles means they weren’t in the synagogue or church on the weekend, an interesting demographic trend that clergy of all stripes will have to confront in the decades to come.

One of my biggest regrets for ending this show now is that I didn’t have the opportunity to interview a number of other individuals about their experience growing up in America from different faith traditions. I had pursued one potential interview on being Muslim in America, but it never came to fruition.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Rajdeep Singh on American Sikhs and Religious Liberty.

Shachar Pinsker on Jewish Coffee House Culture.

Ellie Estrin on the History and Traditions of Chanukkah.

Alison Pond on Being a Mormon Missionary.

#10 Karrie Koesel on Religion and Politics in China

tonygill — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 08:00:01 +0000

This was the very first podcast episode we aired and the second interview that I conducted. I learned of Prof. Karrie Koesel (of the University of Oregon at the time, now at Notre Dame) when I was asked to review grant proposals for a Templeton Fund Initiative. To discover that there was a young scholar just down the road from me who was doing fascinating research (and actually citing me) was a wonderful discovery. I drove down to Oregon and interviewed Karrie in person. I was further excited by the fact that Prof. Koesel, who I met for the first time during this interview, was incredibly conversational in talking about her research. Her comfort with the podcast format is what actually convinced me that I could pull this whole podcast idea off! Being just a few years out from graduate school, this interview also solidified my conviction that I needed to get young scholars on the program who don’t usually have a big forum to talk about their ideas. At the time, this podcast probably had three listeners, so I am very happy to be bringing this to our listeners’ attention once again. (Interestingly, after Karrie’s second interview on the podcast, she was contacted by a media source that heard her on this show.) One of the other great things about this interview was that it created a great working relationship with a brilliant researcher, as Karrie and I participated in a three-year initiative at the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University. It was during this time, as well, that I was able to connect with Prof. Ani Sarkissian (Michigan State) and all three of us have become a recognized force to reckon with (or so I like to think). At a very minimum, both Profs. Koesel and Sarkissian will be prominent senior scholars in the field of religion & comparative politics, if not political science more broadly. Meeting new colleagues and friends has been one of the most blessed experiences I have had over the eight years on the show and I hope that my guests view it that was as well.

Note: Ani Sarkissian’s podcast episodes were in-and-out of the Top Twelve list and I consider them to be of equal quality to Karrie’s podcasts, but hard choices had to be made. Prof. Sarkissian’s interviews would rate in the top fifteen, though, and y’all should listen to them in the links below. Indeed, Ani scored a number of “encore presentations” when I was on vacation.

Second note: This interview was recorded with just one microphone. Being the second interview I ever recorded, I was still too cheap to buy a second microphone. Also, the first interview I ever recorded was never aired for reasons that only two people in the world will ever know.

Original Podcast Link.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Karrie Koesel on House Churches in China.

Ani Sarkissian on Politics and Civil Society in Turkey.

Ani Sarkissian on Religious Liberty in the Post-Soviet World.

Bradley Murg on Russian Orthodoxy after the Soviet Union.

David Patel on Religion and Social Order in Iraq.

Ann Wainscott on the Politics of Islam in Morocco.